Thomas Hardy

This updated authoritative edition of the classic Hardy novel, which was published anonymously and first attributed to George Eliot, is set from Hardy's revised, unedited final draft of 1912 and features a new Introduction and Afterword. There is in England no more real or typical district than Thomas Hardy's imaginary Wessex, the scattered fields and farms of which were first discovered in Far from the Madding Crowd. It is here that Gabriel Oak observes...

Somewhat autobiographical, the story follows Jude Fawley, a stonemason in the fictional county of Wessex, who moves to Christminster to follow his dream of becoming a scholar. He becomes embroiled in a social scandal which leads to murder and suicide.

From the author of 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles', 'Under the Greenwood Tree' is a tale of love, tragedy, and the changing charm of traditional village life when it is met with the cold reality of modernity. Centering on the quaint rural village of Mellstock, set deep within Hardy's imagined and picturesque county of Wessex, the novel revolves around a double plot of the hopeful love story of Dick Dewey and Fancy Day and the tragic demise of the Mellstock...

In "Two on a Tower," a love story set against the background of the stellar universe, Hardy defied social norms of the day and shocked his readers. In what is today seen as the author's most important portrayal of love across physical and societal divides, the novel tells the story of Lady Constantine, a married, older, aristocratic, religious woman who falls in love with Swithin St. Cleeve, a young astronomer, single, lower class, and agnostic. Hardy's...

Jocelyn Pierston, a sculptor of growing fame, is determined to find his ideal in womanhood, a quest that has led to many fruitless encounters. For just as it seems he has found his heart's desire, disillusionment sets in and his burning love turns to ashes. Returning to Portland, his birthplace, he meets young, innocent Avice Caro. They are betrothed until a fateful meeting with the self-assured Marcia Bencomb changes the course of his life yet again....

Ironic short stories. "Stockdale, a lonely young fellow, who had for weeks felt a great craving for somebody on whom to throw away superfluous interest, and even tenderness, was not sorry to join her." A collection of six novellas, written in the 1880s and 1890s, about the true nature of nineteenth century marriage and its inherent restrictions.

In the sphere of poets like Swift, Meredith and Kipling, Thomas Hardy is today becoming recognized as one of the greatest English poets of this century. As a young man with interests in journalism, art, and architecture, Hardy achieved greatness in the fiction genre early on, writing novels for a living until his mid-fifties. He then abandoned fiction entirely in order to devote himself to his true passion-poetry. This ample selection of poems demonstrates...

A set of tales by Thomas Hardy featuring: A Changed Man, The Waiting Supper, Alicia's Diary, The Grave by the Handpost, Enter a Dragoon, A Tryst at an Ancient Earthwork, What the Shepherd Saw, A Committee Man of The Terror, Master John Horseleigh Knight, The Duke's Reappearance, A Mere Interlude.

The second collection of poetry from the author of such classics as Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd. Although well known for his novels, like Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy also wrote poetry throughout his life. Poems of the Past and the Present is Hardy's second volume of poetry, originally published in 1901. This wide-ranging collection is divided into five sections: War Poems, Poems of Pilgrimage, Miscellaneous Poems,...

In the small Wessex village of Mellstock, the pretty young schoolmistress Fancy Day finds herself romantically entangled with three different men. Local lad and choir member Dick Dewy has to compete for her affections with a prosperous farmer and the new vicar, the Reverend Maybold. Maybold disrupts parish life and custom when he decides to replace the three generations of singers and instrumentalists who make up the church choir with a modern organ,...